Reyhan Polat: “I believe the concepts of art and design have emerged from the beginning of self-discovery.”
Our designer guest in this issue is Reyhan Polat, who graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Traditional Turkish Arts, Carpet, Rug and Traditional Fabric Patterns Department, and who portrays the carpet like a painting. Polat, who still continues “Proficiency in Art” education, goes on working as an academician in the department. Reyhan Polat, saying that the concepts of art and design in human beings started with self-discovery, explained her adventure of meeting with carpet for us.
Can we know Reyhan Polat a little bit?
I was born in Istanbul. I graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Traditional Turkish Arts, Department of Carpet, Rug and Traditional Fabric Patterns with an honor certificate. I also completed my master’s degree in my own school. I continue “Proficiency in Art” education. I am an academic in the department of art, I graduated from.
When and how did design come into your life?
I believe that the concepts of art and design have emerged from the beginning of time in which the person finds himself. That’s because the so-called talent does not wait for the ambience or time to reveal itself. Like all internal phenomena, it leads one to impulses before thinking. The person necessarily finds himself in the effort to produce something. My adventure began in my childhood. It may be a cliché, but the childhood is a mirror of person. I’ve always been with paints. My paintings, selected for the school corridors in primary school, were source of pride of me. I always discussed the length of the lines drawn in order to be in the school garden, the color harmony of the flower arrangements put on the stage at the ceremonies, and how large the patterns on the containers of my books should be. I would try to put every frame in my life in order. As I grew older, I perceived that this was an effort to form a composition, the relationship between occupancy and emptiness and aesthetic perception. Green was green, but the hues were limitless for me. I started studying painting in high school, and in time I realized that I like not only painting but also making surface design. The fabrics and carpets excited me. Because their texture was sized as I wanted, and I could feel it when I touched. When the university time came, I took the exams of the school in my dream and started to get academic education.
What do you remember when carpet is said
Carpet is like a borderless frame. I always thought it didn’t differ from canvas. It is a free space in square, rectangular, oval, or other amorphous states. I received classical education in my department. This is one of my biggest luck. That’s because what can an artist or designer demolish without knowing the classic and build something new, and how can he expand his own liberation space? To me, in order to remove the existing, it is necessary to assimilate it. How the border must be, color unity needed in the classic compositions and classic design rules to know are my free space makers. After training in the academy, contributing to the students with this thought became matter to defend my freedom side. Like everybody who thinks that the carpet is an art, without worrying other people will like, the pleasure to compose makes me nearer to carpet. When I approach to carpet, I began to play with materials and the carpet. Uniting non-warped wools and layer fibers and making dimensions with the felting technique.
Three years ago, I went to Sugören village of Yalova, I heard there was silk carpet workplace there. In the place where Hereke carpets were woven there were 8- 10 carpet looms. The weavers throw piles they cut in a small basin under looms. While going out, I saw many sacks near the door. Those pure silks were remains. By taking permission from the owner, I put them in my car and brought to Istanbul. I began to produce paintings. If I did not look at the carpet from a free window, I wouldn’t have everything, making carpet. It seems to me if I didn’t play those games, I wouldn’t know the carpet.
Which movements and designers influenced you in your student life and afterwards?
Beside the palace carpets, the period exactly I like most is Bauhaus. The carpet has a place between art and craft. You approach to that by choosing one of them or try to enjoy this unity. Minimal effect of Bauhaus and the revolution in the design understanding influenced me. It is functional but not free from art. There is an effort to beautify the life of not only artist but also people. When I consider all, I think Bauhaus make people understand the art and design. In the period where the women are pioneers in the production, I don’t ignore to mention the names of the artists who are cults such as Anni Albers, Gertrud Arndt, Gunta Stölzl, and Otti Berger. As for today’s constitutions, I watch Creative Matters with interest. This design team, all women forms, draws my attention because they make designs by experiencing the workplace process. I have been in the organizations with Carol Sebert and Anna Panosyan. It is proud there are such nice and successful women in the world.
What is indispensable for you when making a design?
Memory. I am using my mind like a scrapbook. I am using its original name even if it is translated to Turkish as waste book. The moments, I wander, I feel in the wind, I take, and a movement special to any place. Of course they will not be nice always. A design of a dead lizard, a damaged net of a spider, a fire. Moment box I call life diary are my necessities. The human learns, eliminates and collects. Sometimes you read a book, the time passes, and you don’t remember that book. But the soul remains, the mind takes it. It cooks it and that’s out of human’s will. Fortunately it is so. I like visual collecting, I forget what I say and read, but I remember what I see. Wherever the human tends, it is tamed and it is limitless.
What would you recommend to those who want to turn to design or take training related to it??
I may have some offers I do and I will do till the end of my life: To train the eyes, read, depict, get lonely without isolated, become self-sufficient everywhere and every place, take picture, be interested in philosophy, find different fields of interest, see the country and the world, be merciful, don’t discriminate, know the world, believe synergy and variety, dominate your id, the rest is easy, to draw and study much.
Do you have anything to add?
When Michelangelo was asked how pretty you draw picture, he said “1 percent is ability, 99 percent sweat. We selected unlimited world, it is necessary to sweat not to be lost.
